<p>DH and I decided (independently) to put all the lights and decor away after DS leaves to return to college on Jan. 9. </p>
<p>Although we appreciate S’s help in boxing up things, we both realize that we will need something to distract us from losing freshman son again. sigh.</p>
<p>We will turn the outside ones on for another week but they will stay up until it is warmer. Right now they are buried under snow and ice.</p>
<p>Tree came down today. All other decorations came down Sunday, two days ago, two days after Christmas. Outdoor decorations will come down when there is not a foot of snow on the ground. Next year when D is in college and is home for winter break, I will leave the decorations up until she leaves.</p>
<p>I like putting the decorations up, but I like taking them down and getting my living room back even more!</p>
<p>We stop all lights outdoors and on the tree on the Epiphany, feast of the 3 Kings. No sooner than that. That is not saying the tree goes down then, but no more lights.</p>
<p>Waited after Christmas to put up holiday lights in my dorm room (a big double I just inherited since the exchange student roommate went back to the UK) … used my K-mart gift card to buy 600 lights on clearance =D</p>
<p>Plan on taking them down in May … when I have to vacate the room.</p>
<p>Good catch, marite & Greenery & atomom. You’re absolutely right in the most traditional sense: My “namesake” marks the technical end of the Christmas season.
:)</p>
<p>Theoretically January 6 (Epiphany) which marks the end of the Christmas season. Realistically, the first weekend after New Year’s Eve if the weather cooperates. We never got around to outside lights this year. Thankfully, while we have a neighborhood association, it’s informal and has no power.</p>
<p>Our neighbor gets rid of their trees on December 26th, I think that’s nuts. I want to enjoy it for longer than that.</p>
<p>Christmas is not my favorite season, so the tree went up after Hannakah ended, and came back down during the 49er game on the 27th. The cats were sad to see it go. I’m expecting to find errant ornaments they liberated for months to come.</p>
<p>The outdoor lights however, I really love. Go figure. They went up the second week of December, will come down this weekend, after New Years.</p>
<p>I leave them up at least past epiphany, but usually a while after that. They’re just white twinkle lights outside–though we do have the white porch posts wrapped with red ribbon so they look like candy canes. I think the days are so short and dark, and it’s nice to have a little light to look at when I walk the dog. Our neighborhood doesn’t have street lights, so I wish everybody would leave them up until February so I’m not walking in the dark all the time. I have a cousin in Anchorage and she said they all have twinkle lights up during the winter to combat the darkness.</p>
<p>I’m a “redneck woman”, according to Gretchen Wilson :). We keep Christmas lights on the house year round, but turn them on only between Thanksgiving and mid-January. They are rope LED lights and are hardly noticable when are not on.</p>